That became clear this week as a pair of Republicans — including Sarasota County resident Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder — qualified to run for governor against Scott and Democrat Nan Rich qualified Tuesday to take on Crist, who is running as a Democrat.

As a result, before Crist and Scott — both of whom qualified Monday — can battle in the fall, they will be on the ballot on Aug. 26 in their respective party primaries.

Rich is a former state senator who has been actively campaigning for more than a year.

But Cuevas-Neunder and frequent state and national candidate Yinka Abosede Adeshina, of Tallahassee, were a bit of a surprise on Monday as both paid the $7,800 filing fee to run for governor.

“I’m concerned about the future of Florida,” Cuevas-Neunder said in explaining why she is running.

Cuevas-Neunder, a Palmer Ranch resident, is no stranger to Republican politics.

In 1998, Cuevas-Neunder tried to run against Republican Jeb Bush for the gubernatorial nomination. But after putting in $7,000 of her own money into the campaign, she was disqualified because she did not have a running mate.

Six years later, Cuevas-Neunder lost a Sarasota County School Board race to fellow Republican Frank Kovach. In 2006, she finished a distant fourth in a four-way Republican primary for the state Legislature in a contest won by current Rep. Doug Holder, R-Osprey.

Cuevas-Neunder said she is serious about challenging Scott this year.

“We have a governor who flip-flops and we have an ex-governor who flip-flops,” Cuevas-Neunder said of Scott and Crist in an interview.

Cuevas-Neunder said she’s running to help expose “serious things happening in the Republican Party,” though she offered no further details until later in the campaign.

Adeshina is an even more unusual candidate in that she also has filed to run for president of the United States in 2016 as both a Democrat and as a Republican, according to Federal Election Commission records. In her state filings, Adeshina reports having $8,000 in financial assets.

Adeshina did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Scott and Crist campaigns have largely ignored the prospects of primary elections. Crist has routinely brushed of questions about Rich’s candidacy and refocused questions on the general election with Scott.

Scott’s campaign seemed no more willing to jump into a debate with Cuevas-Neunder. Asked about her comments about Scott and Crist being flip-floppers, Scott campaign spokesman Greg Blair said: “Gov. Scott is laser-focused on sharing Florida’s remarkable turnaround story and making sure our state is the best place in the country to find a job, raise a family and live the American dream.”

Certainly the odds of Crist or Scott losing in their primaries are extremely low — but the belief that U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, would cruise to victory over a severely underfunded opponent also was the conventional wisdom. Cantor lost in a contest that has sent shockwaves throughout the national political landscape and has cautioned incumbents from taking any race for granted.

That alone is likely to force Scott and Crist to pay a little more attention this summer to their political party bases, rather than just train their guns on each other from now until November.

Jeremy Wallace

Jeremy Wallace has covered politics for more than 15 years.
He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4966.
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Last modified: June 17, 2014
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